


Cruel Irony

by SimmeringSun



Series: Siblings of Light [2]
Category: Rockman | Mega Man - All Media Types, Rockman | Mega Man Classic
Genre: Dr. Light's A+ Parenting, Gen, Graphic Depictions of Illness, Heavy Angst, Major Character Injury, One Shot, Sad, Siblings, Suicidal Thoughts, This story is disgusting disgusting DISGUSTING, robot gore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-22
Updated: 2018-08-22
Packaged: 2019-06-30 23:45:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15762207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SimmeringSun/pseuds/SimmeringSun
Summary: Blues always knew he was going to die from his faulty core. He just didn't expect it to be this painful.





	Cruel Irony

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not the best at writing this stuff, but if you are squemish of robot gore that can be kinda comparable to human gore, this is not the best story for you. This story also contains suicidal thoughts.

Blues shivered as he felt his core fester inside of him. It has been whirring and sizzling more than usual. Sure there was an occasional block of days in a month where this happened, but after those couple of days it would usually simmer down. This was different though, and as the days grew into weeks, he was sure of it: he was going to die.

He has been aware of his short lifespan ever since Dr. Wily told him about his nuclear core, and ever since he tried really hard to be ok with it. The child tried his best to be prepared to die, but as he sat under the bridge he called his home, he cried. He thought about Rock and Roll. He thought about them waiting for him to come visit them these last couple of weeks like usual. They probably stayed up all night staring at the window on the twentieth floor, waiting for the familiar tap on the window. He really wanted to see them. He thought about his last words to his siblings, and how little they compared to what he wanted to say to them now. He thought about his newest sibling and how he would never get to meet him. He wouldn’t risk going to see the Lightbots now. He was a ticking time bomb, and he wouldn’t dare risk their lives.

Dr. Light can fix him. He’s been reminded of this many times by doctors that know of his situation. He knows that Dr. Light can fix his core with no sweat, but he was too scared. Proto Man was built to be a fighting robot. Fighting robots who had no purpose end up behind fingerprint stained glass in the Robot Museum. He remembers his first time walking in and seeing the third wave Wily robots who he had befriended. Their polished faces with a plastered smile haunt him. Those were people who were there when he was at his lowest point. They didn’t care that he was a Lightbot, besides Shadow Man. He’d rather die than be a display like they are now.

“Dr. Light would never do that.”, Rock had told him with tears in his eyes during a late night visit. Dr. Light had told Rock about Blues’s faulty core earlier that morning, and Rock cornered Blues as soon as the older robot came. “I wouldn’t let him.”

“But tell me this Rock, can you promise me that he wouldn’t tamper with my memories?”, Blues asked. Rock stayed silent. “Can you promise me that he wouldn’t reset me altogether?”

“I...I don’t think he..”, Rock had floundered with his words. He thought for a moment. “I know he still loves you.”

“He wanted to take away who I was Rock. He wanted to make me a mindless killing machine. If he loved me he would have looked after me. He would have reached out when he found that I was alive. He already has the perfect son, Rock. He doesn’t need me anymore and I’m fine with that.”, Blues had said. Rock cried a lot after their talk, and behind his sunglasses, so did Blues.

And that’s why he just couldn’t go to Dr. Light. That’s why he had to die.

He pulled his helmet off, and grimaced at the heat that seemed to be suffocating him. It has been slowly rising these past few weeks, and everything burned to the touch. He could hear the thrum of his core, and if he’s still enough he swears he can feel his insides melting.

“Please make it stop..”, He groans as he draws his knees to his chest. His receptors are sensitive and make the wires in his sockets spark and flare. He shakily puts his helmet back on.

“Please”, He says with a sob as the heat gets unbearable. He’s far too gone to care how vulnerable he sounds. “Please, somebody help me!”

He stays there on the concrete ground underneath the bridge for what feels like eternity. The crumbling bridge has a hole above him, and light from the sun comes through and gives him energy periodically. He tries to go into sleep mode as much as he can just to get away from the pain, but it’s difficult when all of his systems are trying to alert him of his current state.

After a while, the melting starts to show. His chest plate that opens to reveal his core is closed up from the melted latex. He shakily brings his hands to his eyes and sees that his latex skin has melted there too. He sees the skeletal tips of his fingertips and weeped.

He claws at his the sides of his head and screams when he feels his metal fingertips scoop up the melting skin that sits on his face. He chokes out sobs and feels the melting latex on his lips parting into strings as he opens his mouth. 

When will this stop? He knew he had doubts from past regrets before that kept him from not fully accepting his death, but right now he just wanted it all to end.

He writhes and sees muddled visions of memories that his system had stored. He sees Roll happy about the stethoscope he gave her on her last birthday. He sees Rock asking him to go home in the middle of a battle. He sees his siblings smile at him as they play video games. He sees X sleeping, always sleeping.

Blues feels a smile spread over his face as his core whirs loudly, sparks up, and explodes.

When he opens his eyes and sees a blinding light through the cracks of his helmet visor, he thinks he must be in an afterlife. Blues had never been a believer in the gods and heavens that the humans spoke of, but he hoped it was kind to stray robots like him. He expects some relief from that agonizing pain he had endured, and feels deathly cheated when it all crashes down on him.

He screams, but it’s muffled by his mouth that’s closed shut from the melted skin that bonded together when it dried. With as much effort as he can, he lifts his head and looks on in horror at his lower body.

His torso is in tatters with wires sticking out and sparking. One of his legs is almost completely gone; only staying connected through a few wires. He wills his other leg to move, but it’s not responding. The worst thing though is his arms. He looks to his side as sees one of his arms beside him. He looks to his other side and sees the other appendage there. He’s completely limbless.

He can feel something in place where his core was. It thrums at a steady pace with the same nuclear energy. It exploded, and yet, it’s still there.

This was all a sick joke. He was supposed to die. He was supposed to explode and be gone to this world. Yet here he is, unable to move and call out for help. The possibility of surviving the explosion from his core never crossed his mind. He spent so much time expecting death that he never even considered the chance of the opposite.

He didn’t want to rot here. He can feel the circuits and dials in his head trying to scan for a solution, but nothing comes up. He tries to roll to his side, but he can barely move an inch.

He stares up through the crack in the old bridge and starts to cry. He couldn’t even run out of energy with this opening above him feeding him sunlight. He was doomed to stay here until he erodes into the concrete. Visions of worms crawling through his systems fill his mind and he starts to panic. He thrashes around with all his might and screams, but no one comes.

This bridge was deep in the forest next to a local park that’s hardly used anymore due to the crime rate in the city. There was no one there to help him. He was truly alone.

As he lay under the bridge and cried for weeks, he begged for death. He wanted to die more than anything at this moment.

Then it rained.

The first time it started to rain he felt a horror that rivaled every other horror he had felt before. His systems dinged and shouted for him to get out of the rain, but he couldn’t. He cringed as the drops dripped all over his face and seeped inside his open circuits. He hoped that one drop would hit the right spot and fry all of his systems, but no drop did. They mostly hit right on his face.

Blues knew that water lead to rust and mold, and it only made him cry more.

It’s on one day where the sun is shining intensely on his face that he hears them.

“Blues!”, He hears a voice yelling. The voice sounds desperate and close by.

“Blues!”, Another voice echoes in a shrieking volume.

The calling becomes louder and louder, until Blues swears that they are right on top of the bridge.

“Rock! Roll! I’m right here!”, He tries to call out but all that comes out is a muffled pathetic whine. He wills his mouth to become unstuck, but it won’t budge.

“Rock..I don’t see him anywhere. Are you sure you-”, He hears Roll say from above.

“I’m sure Roll!”, Rock snaps back. Rock is never one to raise his voice, especially at his sister, so Blues is surprised. He continues to try and call out to them.

“I just...I just..feel so awful.”, Rock says. He must be crying from how shaky his voice is. “I haven’t been honest with you Roll.”

“What do you mean?”, Roll asks hesitantly.

“He might be dead right now. He might be dead and it’s all my fault!”, Rock says with a sob.

“What?”, Roll asks shocked. “Rock you’re scaring me! What do you mean? Is Blues in trouble?”

“D-Dr. Light told me that he’s going to die. His core is going to explode any day, and Blues won’t have Dr. Light fix it because he’s scared!”, Rock says through shaky breaths. “I should have dragged him back Roll. I should have tried harder at convincing him it will be ok. I could have even asked Dr. Light to teach me how to do it! This is all my fault, all my fault!”

Rock has dissolved into sobs now, and Blues feels tears running down his own face. 

He screamed the loudest he was able to with his malfunctioning voice, but no sound he made could overpower the retching sobs that came from his brother just above him. He looks to his side and sees a dull rock next to him. He reaches his head over and bangs his mouth against the rock, trying to get his mouth back open.

He never blamed Rock. How could he blame one of the only people that was there for him? He feels hopeless as he thrashes around to make as much noise as he can.

“Rock..”, Roll says. “It’s not your fault. We’re going to find him ok? And when we do we’ll have Dr. Light fix him. We’ll be right there by Blues’s side so he won’t be scared.”

“But Roll, what if we don’t-”

“Don’t say that! Of course we’ll find him!”, Roll interrupts. “It’s sibling instinct!”

“Yeah..yeah you’re right!”, Rock says hopefully. “I can still feel that he’s alive.”

“That’s the spirit!”, Roll says, except her voice sounds further away. “Hang on their Blues, we’re looking for you.”

No, no. He was almost there. The skin was almost broken through.

Blues screams and cries out for his siblings as the voices carry on until they’re just out of reach for his sound receptors. He finally creates a hole on the skin, and it tears open as he screams. Blues weeps until his system has no water left to spare, and his energy runs out as he falls into a deep sleep.

* * *

Everyone knew of the two wandering robots. A sister and a brother who asked all they could see about a little boy in red. They searched and searched until the world collapsed around them and they died.

Even X knew of the legend: Dr. Cain had told it to him long ago. X had always found it sad, two children looking for a lost brother. It sort of became a saying later on. “Like two children looking for red”, people would say when someone was looking for something impossible.

X wasn’t quite sure why, but the story had always stuck to him.

“Why are we doing this again?”, Zero asks and knocks X out of his reveries.

“It’s a human thing. They would walk through nature to relax and see the beauty.”, X says as he smiles to the other.

The two were walking through a patch of forest that has been preserved despite all the wreckage around it. Surprisingly, it was not buried over, which causes a drop in ground level when you get to it.

There were many flowers and a thick brush of trees and bushes. It was untarnished by the wars around it.

“It’s still well kept.”, Zero mumbles as he looks around. 

“Yeah it is. It looks pretty nice right?”, X asks and Zero grunts. X smiles and sees that the other actually seems interested in the plants.

“Hey, these remind me of you!”, X says as he points to bright red begonias. Zero looks at them confused.

“Why? Because they’re red?”, Zero asks with a raised brow.

“Yeah.”, X says simply. Zero snorts.

The two of them walk on, both relaxed and content. Whenever X sensed that Zero was thinking too hard about something, he’d pull him into a nice conversation. It was a nice change of pace from their usual routine. The two of them needed a break.

The two stopped quietly as they encountered a pile of rubble. It was out of place for the setting that surrounded it.

“Wonder how this got here.”, X said out loud. He looked over to Zero who was staring intently at the pile.  
“There’s something moving in there.”, Zero says.

“Something..moving?”, X asks confused. He stops and listens. He can hear the dull bang of something coming from inside. He runs up to the rubble. Perhaps an animal was trapped inside of the debris.

“I’m just going to make sure it’s not an animal stuck in there.”, X says. 

“Sounds like a bad idea.”, Zero says but then shrugs. “Here, I can help you.”

The two have a bit of trouble at first, but they manage to hurl the chunks of cement to the side.

The two look into the dimly lit tunnel. In the middle, under a patch of sunlight, a red robot bangs his head against the floor.

“Hello?”, X calls out.

“Hold on..it might be a Maverick.”, Zero says but X shakes his head.

“He’s limbless..and they look different from a Reploid.”, X says as he slowly steps in. Zero shakes his head and follows him.

X gets closer to the small robot and feels his insides clench as he looks down at the state the robot is in.

A red helmet covered the robot's head, it's visor broken. His arms are detached from his body, and both of his legs practically are. His skin looks out of place, like it had been melted and dried in the wrong places. There was mold that grew on his face, and a crowd of bugs festered around it. The robot looked very old and simple compared to today's robots. It actually looked like a child model which was rare these days.

The robot stopped it's head banging, and craned his head to look at X. There was a moment of silence as the robot's eyes widened. His duly lit eyes stared at X, and a single letter was mumbled from his broken lips like a prayer.

“X….X…”, The robot whispered.

**Author's Note:**

> I've never really played the X games yet, I just read some of the archie comics so sorry if X and Zero are OOC.
> 
> I feel geniunely sorry for you if you read this after "Sleep Well", because ouch, cruel irony
> 
> ALSO. idk what their skin is actually made out of so I just said latex because I remember that's what Astro Boy's skin is lol
> 
> Begonia's are a symbol for caution, dark thoughts that distract you from happiness, and justice and peace according to a website I found.


End file.
